One of the most interesting classes in World of Warcraft is the Shaman. They
can melee DPS like a rogue, heal like a priest, or nuke like a mage. As with any
of the classes in WoW, in order to maximize the effectiveness of your class in
any particular role requires heavy talent point spending in the appropriate
tree. This is doubly true for shamans, who can do three very different jobs
exceptionally well with a deep build in each tree. Here are three of the many
templates favored by players of this versatile class:

I have personally tried all of these builds extensively, with varied success. A
pure healing build requires a LOT of + healing gear (i.e. more than 1000 with
Wrath of Air Totem) in order to be successful in any kind of raid situation.
Sure, you'll be able to heal well, but to even hope to be compared on the charts
to a well geared priest, paladin or druid, Shamans have to work extra hard. The
other healing classes have spells and tricks of the trade that help them do
their job in raid situations more efficiently than Shamans. Until you get enough
+ healing gear to allow you to downrank your main heals, you will constantly
have mana problems in longer boss fights.

Now the melee DPS build is another story entirely, and is extremely viable in
raid situations when played properly. By properly, I mean not generating SO much
threat so quickly that you are killed at the start of the fight. There is a
Shaman in our guild who would regularly die in the first couple seconds of most
boss fights due to his ridiculous burst DPS. Blizzard has acknowledged threat
generation by melee Shamans is more than it should be, and promises to address
the issue in a future patch. Until that glorious day, the unfortunately solution
is to start off slower in big fights, or group with healers and drop a Tranquil
Air Totem to reduce threat by 20%. The burst DPS of a melee Shaman is roughly on
par with what a Fire/Arcane mage can put out, and dual wielding a few 80+ DPS
weapons helps (or a big 'ole 2 Hander for those that prefer massive Windfury
crits).

Elemental Shamans are essentially mages with mail armor that can heal
themselves. Sure it might SOUND overpowered but … ok it is overpowered. They
have excellent survivability compared to a mage, and while they may not be able
to deal as much burst DPS, they can easily top out on the damage meters for long
boss fights. The Unrelenting Storm talent coupled with some other decent mana
per 5 gear, as well as Mana Spring / Mana Tide totems, help counter the mana
problems others casters run into in protracted boss encounters. If you want to
PvP with this build, you will need to consider dropping quite a few points out
of the Elemental tree, and redistributing into the Restoration tree. You will
then have the options available for uninterruptible heals, more points to crit
with lightning, and perhaps even Nature's Swiftness. These will greatly increase
survivability, at the cost of some DPS - it comes down to individual play style
and whether or not you hang around regularly with healers who could watch your
back as you lay down the law.

There are several cool things available to the Shaman class, regardless of
build, that are very useful in everyday PvE, PvP and raiding situations. Aside
from the obvious usefulness of the stat enhancing totems, there are a few other
Shaman treats that bring a lot to the dinner table. Heroism, which is on a 10
minute timer, increases melee, ranged, and spell casting speed by 30% for all
party members. The best aspect of this particular class skill is that it is
reset with every arena match, making the first 40 seconds while the skill is
active VERY handy. The Earth Elemental and Fire Elemental totems, which are on a
15 minute timer, are unfortunately excluded from arena matches. The area effect
taunt of the Earth, and massive area effect damage from the Fire provide the
Shaman and their friends many fun ways to use and abuse these totems to their
collective advantage in other situations.

In closing, if you are not sure what you want to be when you grow up, I would
strongly suggest rolling up a shaman. While leveling, be sure to collect a
variety of gear that would be helpful to the three basic talent builds. Respec
often, and try out the wide variety of play styles available to this class. By
the time you reach 70 and are all grown up, you'll have had the opportunity to
decide which build suits you best. Then you'll be able to focus on one
particular type of gear, and get comfortable inside of it.

About the Author
Mark is a self-professed WoW junkie, having leveled practically every class to
the cap on both Horde and Alliance. While some would argue this makes him an
expert on class development, talent builds, and the intricacies of group
balance, the god's honest truth is that he just can't decide which class he
likes best. One day, he hopes to bring his message of peace and love to the
world, but until then he will slay mercilessly into the wee hours of the night,
praying the powers that be don't pull his cable in a vain attempt to silence
him.